The 4 Worst IPOs of 2013

Even with the a strong market, there have been plenty of stinkers

There’s little to complain about with the IPO market this year: Out of 201 offerings, 21 have posted gains of more than 100%.

But that doesn’t mean the market was full of winners. Consider that 50 deals are still under water, and 22 are off by more than 20% — a painful loss for anyone who invested early on.

So yes, the IPO market is still a risky game and requires a good amount of due diligence (which, of course, we try to do for you at the IPO Playbook). To that end, it sometimes helps to see what went wrong, so you can avoid similar situations in the future.

What are some of the worst IPOs of 2013? There were lots to choose from, but these are the ones that stood out:

Based in Silicon Valley, Tom Taulli is in the heart of IPO land. On a regular basis, he talks with many of the top tech CEOs and founders trying to find the next hot deals and finding out which start-ups are stinkers.

A long-time follower of the IPO scene, back in 1999 Tom started one of the first sites in the space called WebIPO. It was a place where investors got research as well as access to deals for the dot-com boom. Tom also wrote the top-selling book, Investing in IPOs. In it, he covers all the aspects of analyzing an IPO, such as reading the prospectus, detecting the risk factors and understanding some of the arcane regulations. But don’t worry — if that process is too intimidating for you, thankfully Tom will do the legwork for you right here in the IPO Playbook blog.

Tom is routinely quoted in the media about upcoming deals with his interviews on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, but he is eager to take your questions too. You can message him on Twitter at @ttaulli. And feel free to weigh in via the comments section on any of his IPO Playbook posts.